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Video: Last U.S. combat troops leave Iraq

Transcript of: Last U.S. combat troops leave Iraq

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:And it's gone on longer than the
Civil War
, longer than
World War II
. Tonight US
combattroops
are pulling out of
Iraq
. It's been about seven and a half years since that first late-night airstrike decimated the
Iraqi government
and lit up
American television
screens.
Saddam Hussein
is now dead. The new
Iraqi government
is still taking tentative steps. And the toll on the
United

States has been substantial:4,415 American service members died in
Iraq
, close to 32,000
Americans
wounded. We watched the invasion happen on
live television
thanks to some brand-new at the time exclusive technology, and tonight, once again, we watch the pull-out of these
combattroops
the very same way. Though as you watch, remember, 50,000
Americans
in uniform will remain behind in
Iraq
in what's being called a noncombat role. Our chief foreign correspondent
Richard Engel
, who's covered this war for so many years for us, with us from a moving
convoy
in the Iraqi desert tonight. And,
Richard
, I understand your reporting of this at this hour tonight constitutes the official
Pentagon
announcement. Correct?

RICHARD ENGEL reporting:Yes, it is. Right now we are with the last American
combattroops
who -- and they are in the process of leaving this country right now. We are with the 4-2
Stryker Brigade
. I'm broadcasting right now live from the top of a
Strykerfighting vehicle
. There are 440 American
troops
in this
convoy
,

traveling in 60......as soon as they cross the border into
Kuwait
. And it is not far to the border, just about 30 miles from here. As soon as all these
soldiers
leave
Iraq
,
Operation Iraqi Freedom
, the
combat mission
in
Iraq
, will be over.
Combatsoldiers
from the 4th
Stryker Brigade
suit up tonight for their
final mission
. Their vehicles are all pointing south to
Kuwait
. They head out in darkness. The
soldiers
have just left
Camp Liberty
in
Baghdad
. It's about 2:00 in the morning. They'll be driving for seven hours in the night, then take a break before pushing on to the border. The
troops
scan the roads, but it's mostly a precaution. The threat of attack is considered low.
Sunrise
comes early here, just
5 AM
. They've been driving through the night. Daylight gives us our first clear view of the road. The
Strykers
are traveling on
Iraq
's
main north
/south highway, smooth wide blacktop. What a difference to how American
troops
entered
Iraq
. In
2003
,
American forces
crashed through the desert to stay unpredictable to the
Iraqi army
. Also different today, the helicopters over the
convoy
aren't there to provide overwatch. They're carrying reporters, flying low to take pictures. Our own video is broadcast by a satellite truck we affectionately call "The Bloom-mobile."

Mr. DAVID BLOOM:Because it's an
armored vehicle
...

ENGEL:It was named after
NBC
correspondent
David Bloom
. In
2003
,
Bloom
used it to do the first
live television
reports ever from a moving battlefield. Sadly,
Bloom
died of a blood clot before reaching
Baghdad
. On the
convoy
today, Lieutenant
Steven DeWitt
from
San Jose
,
California
, knows he's taking part in a turning point for American
troops
and the
United States
.

Lieutenant STEVEN DeWITT:When they told us we were going to do this, you didn't really grasp how important it was, you know, how big a deal this actually was to be driving out of here, you know, as the last
combat
battalion in
Iraq
. And it feels pretty good to be a part of it right now.

ENGEL:We're driving down a main highway in and amongst traffic.

Lt. DeWITT:Exactly. And you see, you know, even a year and a half ago, two years ago, you wouldn't have had traffic passing the
convoy
.

ENGEL:For the last few days, the lights of
Stryker
vehicles have been breaking the darkness as they cross into
Kuwait
, a brigadier general standing to salute every arriving soldier.

Unidentified Soldier #1:Good job, guys.

Unidentified Soldier #2:Hooah.

Soldier #1:Hooah.

Unidentified Soldier #3:We're
going home
.

First Sergeant MARK OHMY (United States Army):To be able to cross that border and know that I've made it with all of my guys, which I could not say before, it's tremendously good feeling.

ENGEL:Some second thoughts from Private
1st Class Joshua Ablar
, who just became a
US citizen
while serving in
Baghdad
.

Private 1st Class JOSHUA ABLAR:Feel kind of sad because we got a bond between the people in
Iraq
.

ENGEL:Finally time to take off their flak jackets and break down their weapons, and pause to take in a moment of history. We are traveling quite quickly to the border,
Brian
. We're moving around 45 miles an hour. So this vehicle and the rest of the
convoy
should be through into
Kuwait
in just a couple of hours. And quite appropriately,
Brian
, this
mission
is code named
The Last Patrol
.

WILLIAMS:Richard
, we realize your signal is dicey. It's a lot to ask technically, but we'll try to keep this going while we can. What about those
left behind
and the situation, now in your rearview mirror, back in
Iraq
? A lot of
Americans
will be asking under what possible conditions would
American soldiers
ever go back in?

ENGEL:The
soldiers
that are staying behind are on a training
mission
, and the difference is these
soldiers
right now are on a
combat mission
. They have
combat
power. If the orders came -- and they'd have to come very quickly now -- to send these
troops
to go take an objective, to go take a town, they would do that. That is what they are in
Iraq
to do. The 50,000 that will remain will be working mostly in offices, teaching basic skills to the
Iraqi army
and police. And they don't have the mandate to go out into a fight. Sure, they're mid -- there might still be some fighting. If American trainers do get shot at, they will fight back, but they will not be doing
combat missions
, trying to take objectives.
That's what
these
soldiers
do, and they're leaving.

WILLIAMS:And,
Richard
, of course, as you pointed out,
Iraq
has always had two-laned paved highways with painted markers and
road signs
, but it's not the way the US came in. It must be a very eerie feeling to be the way these
combat
forces are leaving.

ENGEL:It is a very strange experience, particularly when we were driving earlier in the daylight hours and vehicles were moving in and around the
convoy
. When the invasion began in '03, it was -- there was so much secrecy, they were going through the desert, that left hook to
Baghdad
to make sure that no one knew where they were going to be going. Now we were getting waved at by
Iraqi police
. There were people sometimes lined up along......moving around the
convoy
, a completely different experience. It almost felt like we were a line of taxis heading out of
Iraq
.

WILLIAMS:Richard Engel
reporting from a moving
convoy
as it leaves the Iraqi desert into
Kuwait
.

IRAQ-KUWAIT BORDER — The last U.S. combat troops crossed the border into Kuwait on Thursday morning, bringing to a close the active combat phase of a 7½-year war that overthrew the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein, forever defined the presidency of George W. Bush and left more than 4,400 American service members and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead.

The final convoy of the Army’s 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., began entering Kuwait about 1:30 a.m. (6:30 p.m. Wednesday ET), carrying the last of the 14,000 U.S. combat forces in Iraq, said NBC’s Richard Engel, who has been traveling with the brigade as it moved out this week.

NBC News video showed the last Stryker vehicles rolling up to the gate. A guard pulled it back, and the vehicles drove through. The gate closed behind them.

P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the State Department, told msnbc TV that while the departure is “an historic moment,” he said, it is not the end of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

“We are ending the war ... but we are not ending our work in Iraq,” he said. “We have a long-term commitment to Iraq.”

The White House website first trumpeted the "End of Combat in Iraq" before backtracking to note that the official end of combat operations is Aug. 31.

Still, and as the last soldiers reached Kuwait after midnight, they said they were proud of their effort.

Brig. Gen. Nick Tooliatos, deputy commanding general for First Theater Sustainment Command in Kuwait, stood at the border saluting each soldier as he or she crossed.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better honor than to greet some soldiers who have done great work for a year fighting our nation’s war, and to just be here and render honors to them and welcome them and thank them for a job well done,” Tooliatos said.

“It’s a historic event,” he said. “In 2003, we rolled across this berm into Iraq, and now as we get ready to transition the security of Iraq to Iraq’s own forces, this is a significant retrograde of a combat unit.”

50,000 advisers to remain
The timing of the final departure was a closely held secret, and the end came in dramatic fashion two weeks ahead of the Aug. 31 deadline President Barack Obama had set to withdraw combat forces and close Operation Iraqi Freedom, which the U.S.-led multinational coalition began March 20, 2003, in the belief that Hussein possessed an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction that threatened the West.

In a statement, Obama called the troops’ withdrawal a “milestone in the Iraq war” and said, “I hope you’ll join me in thanking them, and all of our troops and military families, for their service.”

At one point, the United States had blanketed the country with nearly a quarter-million-strong combat force; by the end of the month, Obama said, about 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in the country, in a non-combat role providing support and training for the Iraqi military.

“This is an extremely interesting night to see these pictures, but I think people need to understand ... this is a transition from one that is military over seven years to one that is a transition to diplomacy,” Crowley said.

“It’s still a dangerous place,” he said.

Christopher R. Hill, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, said it was now Iraq’s responsibility to form a stable long-term government and Washington’s responsibility to “see Iraq as a country and not as a war.”

In remarks Wednesday to the U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington, Hill said he was optimistic about the prospects of a stable government, but he added, “If it’s instant gratification you’re looking for, you had better look elsewhere.”

The new U.S. ambassador, James F. Jeffrey, presented his credentials to President Jalal Talabani on Wednesday.

In those 7½ years, 4,415 U.S. service members lost their lives.

Estimates of the number of Iraqis who were killed are more problematic, complicated by difficulties in determining which combatants were from Iraq or were sympathizers from other countries in the region, by deciding whether to include victims of bombings and other attacks by anti-coalition elements, and by the biases of who is doing the reporting.

Iraq Body Count, a non-governmental organization based in Germany whose tallies are commonly reported by Western news agencies, puts the current toll at 97,000 to 106,000. By contrast, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Al Mustansirya University in Baghdad said in a report heavily criticized by U.S. officials that more than 650,000 Iraqis were killed in “war-related activities” just in the period from 2003 through 2006.

A spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq said Iraqi police and the country's military were up to the task of keeping the country secure after U.S. combat troops completed their withdrawal, but he added that the sooner the government was formed the calmer the country will be.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza told CBS' "The Early Show" that Iraqi security forces had shown professionalism and the will to improve and had made strong progress since 2003.

Struggle continues in Afghanistan
The 4th Stryker Brigade, a unit of the 2nd Infantry Division that is known as the Raiders, arrived a year ago to provide security for the Iraqi elections on March 7 and to help coordinate the transition of command to the Iraqi military.

The formal handover actually took place Aug. 7, when three Raider soldiers and two Iraqi soldiers pulled down the the brigade’s colors at Forward Operating Base Constitution, leaving only the flags of the Iraqi government and the 6th Iraqi Army Division flying.

Still, the departure means the end of only some combat operations in the greater region. As many as 100,000 U.S. combat forces are still operating in Afghanistan, which they are not tentatively to conclude until next July.

“I think the biggest challenge is the combination of running two theaters,” Tooliatos said, “not only drawing down things in Iraq but working to get things into Afghanistan to the right place at the right time so that the soldier on the ground has what he needs to fight, win and survive on the battlefield.”

Pfc. Timothy Berrena of Fairfield, Conn., is likely to be one of those soldiers. After 12 months on this tour in Iraq, he has re-enlisted.

“I’m hoping to do one more [tour] before I get out. I’m sure the next one will be Afghanistan if it’s anywhere,” Berrena said.

“It’s another chapter in the book,” he said. “It’s a good experience — met a lot of great kids here. You’ve got kids in the military who can’t even buy a pack of cigarettes yet, but they can come over here and fight for their country. I’m just glad to be a part of it.”

‘No one else is going to get hurt’
For others, like Pvt. Nicholas Kelly of Seattle, the day meant “I’m on my way home now.”

“It was a great feeling, you know, being in the country for 12 months,” Kelly said. But “finally getting out is a great feeling.”

Staff Sgt. Steven Bearor of Merrimac, N.H., said he, too, was looking forward to “going home to the family. I like it.”

But the best part, he said, is knowing that “no one else is going to get hurt.”

The Iraqi security forces “are ready to go, Bearor said. “I have all of faith and confidence they will be able to pull off the job.”

By Richard Engel and Charlene Gubash of NBC News on the Iraq-Kuwait border and Alex Johnson of msnbc.com.

U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicles cross the border from Iraq into Kuwait on Wednesday, Aug. 18. The U.S. Army's 4th Stryker Brigade is the last combat unit to leave Iraq as part of the drawdown of U.S. forces. President Barack Obama had set a goal of reducing the number of American troops in Iraq to 50,000 troops by Sept. 1.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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A member of the U.S. Army's 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, carries an American flag after a departure ceremony at Forward Operating Base Constitution in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, on Aug. 7.
(Moises Saman / The New York Times via Redux Pictures)
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The U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division band plays during a ceremony marking the formal withdrawal from the last checkpoints they helped staff in the Green Zone of Baghdad on June 1.
(Holly Pickett / Redux Pictures)
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U.S. military Humvees are ready to be shipped out of Iraq at a staging yard at Camp Victory on July 6 in Baghdad. Everything from helicopters to printer cartridges are being wrapped and stamped and shipped out of Iraq in one of the most monumental withdrawal operations the American military has ever carried out.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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Workers sort through broken computer equipment that will be destroyed at a demilitarizing facility for unusable, un-transportable U.S. military equipment at Camp Victory on June 24 in Baghdad.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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Workers operate machinery that destroys damaged concrete blast walls at the U.S. Joint Base Balad, north of Baghdad, on July 3.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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Soldiers from 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, clear their weapons before boarding a military aircraft in Baghdad, as they begin their journey home on Aug. 13.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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An Air Force airman talks on a radio as Army soldiers from 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division prepare to board a military aircraft in Baghdad on Aug 13.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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Soldiers from 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, are seen on board a military aircraft in Baghdad on Aug. 13, as they begin their journey home.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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U.S. Army soldiers carry the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of a U.S. soldier out of a C-17 during a dignified transfer on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base on Aug. 17 in Dover, Del.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
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Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.